A timballo or timbale as Sicilians call it, is a molded dish made of rice, pasta, or potatoes.  The timbale can be a layered concoction with cheese, vegetables, eggs, meat, and or poultry. Sometimes the filling is encased in a layer of pastry crust or thin fried eggplant slices.  It can be simple or as […]

My cousin Pina, who lives in Detroit, shared this holiday recipe for rice dressing that can be used as a stuffing or a side dish.  It goes well with poultry and pork.  Pina’s Rice Dressing Difficulty Rating: EasyMakes 8 servings. Ingredients:1 1/2 cups rice cooked in 3 cups chicken stock2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut […]

While cooking rice for dinner last night, Nonna Serafina’s tomato basil rice came to mind.  I haven’t made her rice dish in years, but I recalled those large nutty grains of arborio rice, chunks of tomatoes, and an explosion of basil flavor in every mouthful.  I had to restrain myself from eating the whole pot. […]

Neither my husband nor I like turkey.  I think it was standard protocol, back in the day, that a turkey had to be cooked for hours until it was bone dry.  Nearly everyone I know cooked it this way.  A couple of decades later, and we now know that turkey doesn’t have to be cooked […]

The classic bread stuffing was not the norm in our family; I think mostly because no one really knew how to make it.  My sister-in-law once asked me if Italians stuffed their turkeys with pasta.  I’ve never met anyone who did, but I guess you can stuff a turkey with just about anything when you […]